Almost half of Australians believe the country should send troops to help defend Taiwan against China if required, a much higher percentage of the population than in the US or Japan, a new survey suggests.
About a third of the public in the US and Japan agreed with sending military forces to respond to such a crisis, according to polling commissioned by the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
The results, to be officially released on Wednesday, were shared with Guardian Australia in the wake of a new security declaration that commits Australia and Japan to consult each other on how to respond to regional crises.
Chinese state media denounced that agreement as being driven by a “harsh and prejudicial judgment” of Beijing’s intentions.
But Taiwan’s representative in Canberra welcomed Australia and Japan’s joint call for “peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”.
Elliott Charng, who leads the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia, told Guardian Australia that Taiwan was “willing to deepen engagements with like-minded partners to address regional security challenges and to safeguard a shared vision of free and open Indo-Pacific”.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, told the 20th Communist party congress he would never rule out the use of force to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan, a self-governed democracy of 24 million people that he regards as central to his promise to achieve “national rejuvenation”.
The new survey, conducted online by YouGov between 5 and 9 September, asked a representative sample of 1,068 Australians: “If China attacks Taiwan, how much do you agree or disagree with Australia responding in the following ways?”
Nearly half of the sample (46%) agreed or strongly agreed that Australia should “send military forces to help the United States defend Taiwan”. That figure included 18% strongly agreeing.
That result compared with 25% of the sample disagreeing (including 9% strongly) and the rest not committing to either position.
In Japan, however, where 1,015 people were surveyed, just 35% agreed or strongly agreed with sending Japanese military forces to help the US defend Taiwan, while 29% disagreed or strongly disagreed.
Opinion was evenly divided in the US too, where 33% agreed or strongly agreed with sending American troops to help defend Taiwan, while 31% disagreed or strongly disagreed. That was based on a representative sample of 1,066 people.
The results reveal stronger support in all three countries for adopting the west’s sanctions-heavy response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 61% of the Australians polled agreeing with economically isolating China if it invaded Taiwan.
More than half of Australians (53%) supported providing Taiwan with weapons. But a sizeable proportion of the respondents – 38% – agreed Australia should not get involved at all. The former prime minister Paul Keating has argued that Taiwan was “not a vital Australian interest”.
The US Studies Centre also tested views on how Australia should respond if China built a military base in Solomon Islands, with the most popular option being to increase diplomacy in the Pacific region (81%), followed by offering Honiara a better economic deal than Beijing could provide (69%).
About one-third of Australians polled agreed somewhat (19%) or strongly (15%) with the option of using military force against the base – the least popular option. The prime minister of Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, has repeatedly promised that his country would “never be used for foreign military installations”.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, met with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, in Perth on Saturday and they signed an agreement to deter “aggression and behaviour that undermines international rules and norms”.
“We will consult each other on contingencies that may affect our sovereignty and regional security interests, and consider measures in response,” the new security declaration said.
While the deal does not explicitly commit the countries to respond jointly to a military crisis across the Taiwan Strait or in the South or East China seas, it appears to be a clear statement of intent of increasing closeness on security issues.
Michael Green, the chief executive of the US Studies Centre and a former US adviser on east Asia, said the Japanese government viewed Australia as its most important security partner after the US.
“I’ve just come out of meetings with a group of senior Japanese officials who say that in their interactions in the Quad or any other forum, their Australian counterparts are always the most closely aligned [with Japan] on issues, whether it’s trade or deterrence or China policy,” Green said in an interview from Tokyo. “It’s a very natural strategic partnership.”
Green said he expected to see an increase in Japanese troops training in Australia. The two countries were also likely to collaborate on advanced technologies, such as hypersonic weapons.
The state-run China Daily said in a relatively muted editorial that the security agreement was at odds with Albanese’s “generally” positive steps “to correct his predecessor’s wrongs”.
The paper blamed the US and its allies for the deteriorating security outlook, arguing they were trying to contain China’s rise.
